Ten Years After's Alvin Lee has died

English blues-rock guitar hero Alvin Lee, who achieved international stardom after his band Ten Years After performed at the fabled Woodstock festival in 1969, has died at the age of 68.

Lee, whose most recent album, "Still on the Road to Freedom," came out last summer, died early Tuesday morning, according to his family. A post on his website and Facebook page reads: With great sadness we have to announce that Alvin Lee unexpectedly passed away this morning after unforeseen complications following a routine surgical procedure. We have lost a wonderful much loved father and companion. The world has lost a truly great and gifted musician.

Lee was a longtime resident of Marbella, Spain, although his family has not yet indicated where he was at the time of his death or the nature of the routine surgical procedure he underwent.

As the fleet-fingered guitarist and charismatic lead singer in Ten Years After in the 1960s and '70s, Lee became a reigning guitar hero. After he and the band made a star-turning appearance at Woodstock in 1969 with their high-octane, rock-a-boogie song "I'm Going Home," Ten Years After catapulted to worldwide stardom. The song incorporated several early rock 'n roll and blues classics, including "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Blue Suede Shoes."

The band soon sold millions of albums, scored hit singles and headlined at festivals and large venues worldwide, including the San Diego Sports Arena. Lee's last area performance was a 1996 show at Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay, where he appeared in a short-lived band co-led by fellow English blues-rock veterans Eric Burdon (who performs here April 21 at Sycuan Casino).

In hindsight, though, Woodstock marked the beginning of the end for Lee and Ten Years After, which split up in 1974 after making 11 albums in seven years.

"The ride was fun, but where (Woodstock) took us was very disappointing," Lee said in a 2004 U-T San Diego interview. "Woodstock was just another festival at the time. But when the `Woodstock' movie came out, it crossed over to a bigger audience and we started playing ice hockey arenas and baseball stadiums. And that turned out to be quite horrible, because it was (for) younger audiences, who were screaming and shouting.

""It was the beginning of the end . . . it made business very aware of the potential bucks in rock 'n' roll, and turned music into an industry and touring into marketing."

Lee's subsequent solo career was much more low-key. He reunited with Ten Years After for one album and tour in 1987. The band's three other members have continued performing under the Ten Years After banner, with a younger guitarist-singer Joe Gootch, assuming Lee's role. This move soured Lee on doing another reunion with Ten Years After.

"The sad thing is, I was thinking of doing a 40th anniversary reunion with the other three guys in 2006, and this spoils it," Lee said in his 2004 U-T interview. "They're using the name and milking the last pound of it. If I wanted to spend a lot of money on lawyers, they'd have to change their name to Ten Years More, but it's not worth it."